*delivered at Tanghalan Seminaryo 3/11/08*

Good day, ladies and gentlemen.

What is honesty?

Honesty is the key to greatness. It is the greatest virtue ever to be conceptualized. It is one of the most important things that a Christian like me and you has to follow in order to be holy.

Coming from Catholic schools since I was a kid, honesty has always been hammered into my head. It was encrypted to my heart by my first educator, my mom. She was my project maker and my homework wizard when I was in kindergarten, and she’s my very own secretary up to this day. She herself taught me most of the things that I know today. She taught me the values that I carry to this very minute. Amidst all of those things, she taught me the most important thing needed in our world today, honesty. She taught it to me not directly, but through her actions. Never have I seen her being dishonest. Even if it’s just a peso, she wouldn’t hesitate to give it to its rightful owner, may it be a big grocery store or a simple tricycle fare. Even if she was horded by dishonesty, she would remain true to herself and be honest. She is my superhero, my all around wonder mom.

Dishonesty, as you would all know, is the exact opposite of honesty. You wouldn’t want to uproot sins from dishonesty as it greatly amplifies the damage. Dishonesty has always been a case for our country, mainly in our government. If the news on TV and on the newspapers are bad it would mostly be about dishonesty. We could say that dishonesty is a common crime in our society, that it is the only thing that is pulling us down.

As young students, we should start now in order to avert this dishonesty phenomenon. The only things that we can do now are these little acts of honesty that we do today like correcting mischecked exam papers and doing our chores wholeheartedly. As Rizal and our elders believe that we are the future, then if we continue being honest in these little acts that we do today, the Philippines will surely prosper when the time comes that we will have to run it, we will be able to pay our country’s debts. Just imagine that picture, that wonderful sight. It’s is our bright future no doubt about it.

I’ve had my share of that experience when my paper was mischecked and I will get a deduction of five points or so if I report it to my teacher, 5 points is a big number since it’s a social studies exam which is a really hard one too. But in the end, I thought about it and I reported it. I’m glad I did because I got the points anyway just for telling the truth, just for being honest. That was a big relief. Back when I was still a kid, and my dad still uses his belt to discipline us, I had the urge not to be honest whenever I do something wrong because I know that I would face my father’s belt if I tell him the truth. Again, I didn’t commit dishonesty, I told the truth and I got hit badly in the end. But, because of that I have gained my parent’s trust, they don’t question what I tell them now, they believe me because they know me, they know that I won’t lie to them, I have never done so and will never do so just to keep the air of trust in our home.

So my brothers and sisters, let us adopt this saying: “Be honest, even if others are not, even if others will not, and even if others cannot,” and be rewarded greatly. Let us rise up form these names that they call us, this “most dishonest country” banner that they’ve hung upon our necks, let us push it away and hang a big honest sign replacing it. Let us be a country where there will be no need of policemen, where everyone values law and order through honesty. Thank you.

could it be that my life is ending… with this last breath, what can i do? what must i do?

I was holding onto a roughly edged Daikatana for the fist time of my life… i was 13… the start of my training!

my parents died when i was 5… I can still see their vague faces whenever I close my eyes… and this warrior took care of me. I became his apprentice with a vision to slaughter the monster who killed my parents.

we went to the caves of Bloody Ice… it was severly cold, and just seeing my master slash through skeletons effortlessly really motivated me!

onto the deserts of Desert Scream where we fought more against the wind that the monsters and then finally to the rain forest of Green Despair, cold, wet and shaking… I still survived and killed many.

after 20 years of hard training I became strong and my master with his age creeping up to him, gave in and stopped travelling…

he gave me his forcium set @_@

it was the happiest time of my life because of the new armor and the saddest one because from now on i’ll be travelling alone.

I went off through dungeons, through hard quests… and finally I met my match a big pumpkin… WTF! 1 hit!

haha

   I was breathing heavily. I was desperate for air. With every gasp I felt my heart weaken. beating, beating faintly. At that very moment… I knew… I was gonna die.

   I looked around. I saw lots of faces… gloomy faces. They’re all staring at me… staring helplessly as I slowly die.

   Images started spurting out of nowhere… I recognized them immediately! My life… my sad life.

   Suddenly, bright light flashed from the ceiling… a light unlike any I’ve seen. wait a moment! wings? white dove-like wings?! An angel! an angel bearing the most beautiful face I’ve ever laid eyes on, but somehow… I recognize her.

   She came up to my deathbed… grabbed my hands gently and looked calmly at my old withered face… I could not do anything but stare back to her eyes… She’s so beautiful.
    "I’ve been waiting for this moment. I knew we’d meet again. I was watching you the whole time…" she said.
   I was really confused… what did she just say?
   "… I love you…" she said.
   With that I remembered… she was my girl. My girl back when I was 17. She died… we were together since we were just kids… The only reason why I had no family…
   "From now on we’ll be together… Forever." she said.

    For all of your information this story was written for my speech class and I actually have no intention of writing something… This came out of the blue.

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … .

    There was this family composed of a mother a father and a kid named Zy. It "was" a happy family until a tragedy happened. A big misunderstanding was made between the humans and an alien race named Uhtah. The Uhtahians are much alike the humans in form and composition the only difference is that the Uhtahians look alike. standardized height of 6′, good looking faces, long and straight hair for both sexes. They are extremely attractive.

    The misunderstanding that happened was that the humans showed the Uhtahians the sign of peace but for the Uhtahians it meant the other way…

    Zy’s dad went off to his fleet and resumed his commanding position leaving his son and his wife. Since Zy was just 2 years old he doesn’t know whats happening.

    The war went on and on for lots of years… Zy became 10 years old and his father killed countless Uhtahians and became one of the earth’s heroes. The bad thing about this is that the commander of Zy’s dad got really envious to the point that he plotted to kill Zy’s dad. The commander arranged a fake mission and sent it to Zy’s dad which he accepted without question. Zy’s dad ,accompanied by his armada, went off to their mission without knowing what’s in store for them. They only met the enemies strongest mecha units and hordes of the enemies battle crusiers. The earth’s fleet was obliterated in just seconds. Zy’s family was devastated and his mom went crazy.

   
    A dear husband and a good father died that day.

    10 years has passed…

    Zy’s mother died of cancer a year after his dad’s death.

   Zy at the age of 20 graduated valedictorian from the mecha pilot school he attended. Zy easily became a mecha leader when he applied at the military and was assigned to the most prestigious group there is… The S.T.A.R.S. (Special Tactics And Rescue Squad). His team mates were all just young adults like him, but all of them still has fathers that are proud of them. He is the type of a leader that doesn’t shout and is not very close to his team but his members trust and respect him.

    Due to their insane skills with mecha units they easily became the earth’s strongest force. They execute their missions perfectly even the hardest mission became easy to them. They were like celebrities whenever they finish a mission and return back to their space station. Because of that they also became boastful and thought that they could do anything now.

    The commander who killed Zy’s father saw Zy’s name at the top of the mecha pilot’s list and remembered the surname of the guy he killed 10 years ago. The commander grinned and plotted another murder. He arranged another fake mission that he sent to Zy. Zy noticed that something was wrong because he felt really cold when he held the letter. Nonetheless, he accepted the mission and went out to get his mates. They quickly got off the space station and flew off to the planet Hugo near the enemy base. They found the coordinates of the so called stranded mecha pilot but they saw no one there… not even a trace that someone was there. They all felt scared now… Then and there Zy remembered what happened to his dad and told his mates that they must get out of the planet right now. Because his mates trust him they all followed without question. But they were too late… once they got out of the planet’s atmosphere they were engaged by the biggest fleet they ever encountered. They were greatly outnumbered 15 : 1… But, due too their high level of skill they easily destroyed thousands of enemy mecha units in just a minute. The great battle for survival lasted for days…

    Its the 5rd day now and their team is decreasing from 20 to 5 now with Zy still fighting hard and very determined not to die this way. Most of their mates died of hunger and of being tired. The five of them is losing hope and one of them suggested that they should give up now and live. But Zy, feeling no hunger and is still full of energy, has another thing in mind… He doesn’t want to die as a slave and dishonor his world and his mates so he said that they should fight till the end.

    7th day and their only down to two. Zy and a mate fighting back to back… Zy just wont give up… But… Something unexpected happened… his power turned red same with his mates power.

    8th day… Zy died happily and really fulfilled… Never did he have an expectation to last that long against that kind of armada…

    His name was remembered as the one who’ll never give up.

    He lost everything but he still has his mother and father waiting for him in a new world…

    I don’t understand what’s happening to me but this really feels weird… You know when you do something you just can’t do it without music? I’m like that so I do everything I normally do with music. The only exception is when I’m at school ’cause it’s forbidden to bring gadgets at school due to understandable reasons which you don’t really have to know ’cause I’m getting way off topic now…

    So yeah… I’m always accompanied with music but that’s not the weird part (you’re weird if this is weird to you!). You see… When I play a certain song… It reminds me of what I did when I listened to that certain song before… Weird right? Same thing with food! When I listen to a certain song I kind of remember a certain taste or crave for something… really creepy…

    I’ve done some research on the net about the senses ’cause my little sis asked me to, I never had the intention to look, but I read there (sorry forgot the address) that It is included in the senses… And the fun part is that it’s exclusive… Only a selected few are gifted with this sense… Although… I won’t call it a sense but an irritation… Whew… crap

    Well well well… Good news! I have a new cousin! Yey


    Kawaii (cute)… Fresh from my aunt’s tummy!

    Her name is Shaira Fae, hybrid of her two sister’s names: Sara (short for Samantha) and Trisha (both of them are still small kids… forgot their ages xD).

    Sara is tall and thin while Trisha is short and a bit chubby… If you think about it… maybe Shaira will be tall and chubby or short and thin! haha!

    I hope she’ll speak soon and grow up soon too! so that I can play with her and chat with her! I’ll teach her how to play Chess! Makes me really wonder what she’s gonna look like when she grows up. I just can’t wait!

    Time machine please?!

    My mom with Shaira!  Even though she’s that small she can scream really loud.

    Where’s that time machine!!

    2nd post this day! yey! I hope someone will read my posts! ^.^

    Here’s a pic of my dad’s character luring effortlessly (pinapapilot lng sakin 2 hehe!) with his 16k hp @_@ and thick hide…

    I can say that those were the good old days… ’cause recently, just after I took that shot, the server that we were playing at had a lot of problems due to players hacking their server… they simply decided to reset everyone’s characters back to level 1 and remove all cheated items… another modus of metro (the administrator of the server) in my opinion… i think he just made that up…

    But due to extreme boredom… I just can’t help but play… which just sucks ’cause we have to start all over again…
   

    Here’s a pic taken after the rollback… my dad’s character wenaro is really struggling in this pic with
only 2.5k hp

    Pic taken at Event uhaha where mobs spawn everywhere in no time after their deaths…

    The saying: "no pain, no gain" is really showing here.

    Painful game… bummer

     Me (wenaro) only wearing my +5 senior set with no shoes and gloves!! they can’t kill me haha! They had to call out a really strong donator to kill me. weee!

    I really wanna PK again… I miss our old character… sigh sigh… I’ll have to train hard again I guess…

ciao! :grinding: :grinding: :pant:

    Here’s a picture of my guitar and my right hand. ^.^

    (wew! Kita rin pala ung weights ko! nagreflect sa gitara… malinis? haha!)

    Well… that’s my guitar… Actually it’s my dad’s ’cause he bought it ^.^. But he doesn’t use it anymore and I always play it so it kinda became mine ^.^

     I started playing around 2 years ago way back when I was  still a 2nd year student.

    I remember it clearly… when I first held a guitar… Jordan (my childhood buddy) was the one who taught me the basics about the guitar (chords and basic strumming pattern). maybe your wondering why my dad didn’t teach me, right? it’s ’cause he believes in self studying. Since he learned how to play the guitar all by himself.

    It was around mid day, music class. Since we were so many, (47 ata) our MAPEH teacher asked all those that know how to play the guitar to instruct us. Jordan was assigned to our group. He taught us the song "crazy for you". I got it easily but my group mates can’t seem to understand what Dan was saying.

    We had a practical test after that. First we had to play chords… from A to G (major) or we could also play a chorus of any song. I did both and I passed with high marks! weeeee!

    After that I self studied and learned lots of easy songs. When I really felt comfortable I tried out for the mc(squared) group. I played crazy for you… they asked me "how long have you been playing?" "Six months, sir" I answered… they let me go after that ’cause there was a long line for the wanna bees. After a week they posted out everyone that passed the try out in the bulletin board… VIOLA!

I f***in failed…

darn…

    But I didn’t give up on my guitar skills… I practiced from that day until now…

    Now I can say that that year of practicing really paid off… I can play decently now! ^.^ Even if it’s just some silly covers of some crazy songs… I can play well! I can also tune a guitar by ear which is a real achievement! nung january lang kac ako natutu mag-tune. haha!

ciao!

    I can’t explain it but when I first heard/saw her Laugh away video from the  random music videos that Animax plays every once in a while I became a fan instantly! Even though she’s from another country (Japan) and I don’t understand a word from her songs she still got me… her voice was just so… CUTE!!! I rushed to our PC the moment her video stopped and searched about YUI… I found out that she started as a street performer which is so cool because everyone that heard her liked her too just like me. But now she is so successful. I downloaded all of her songs too! I would’ve bought  her albums (3) if only they were sold here…

    Isn’t she cute?

    What made me look up to her more is that she writes her own songs. She wrote every song from her first one to her current single. The thing is I wanna be exactly like that… a singer/song writer! Dreams are free so… heck! I want the real thing!! I wish I can come up with a song soon… Bad thing is i get headaches whenever I come home from school so I can’t think properly… sigh!

    She also studied at a music school and dropped out from high school. That music school got her to where she is now. So I guess I’ll go to a music school when I settle down after college or something…

hmmm…

    Now that I think about it I guess I won’t have enough time after college… a job… maybe a family… what’ll I do!! I wanna compose songs!! help!!

    Please do visit this site and find out more about YUI!

    Let me introduce myself first.

    My full name is Erik Noel S. Fruto. S = Siano. Born and raised at Los Banos Laguna (pano ba ung "enye"? di ko alam e hehe) in my grandparent’s place (mother side). That house is a flower farm so it’s really spacious and full of plants since it’s quite far away from the city. It’s kinda like our breathing place ’cause it has lots of plants. It’s really great out there… sigh… butterflies flying around, dogs and cats mingling together, many colorful flowers just blooming everywhere! And of course the lovely bridge that my granddad built… a real mansion… sometimes i wonder… "when will my grandparents die? So that I will inherit their place!" LOL!
    I’m currently studying at Don Bosco College - Canlubang (largest DB school in the PH). I’m a 4th year student there and I’m the class president. I’m also a member of the K.O.A. sodality group (president parin). I can’t say that I’m an all around type of server but I do know what each position’s job is. I’m currently enjoying my post as a cross anyway.
    Hobbies?
    I play the guitar and I love singing too (jamming!!) w/c makes me a musical person. I’m also trying to come up with my own song but I’m not so successful. I love solving the rubik’s cube (1min) over and over again ’till my hands drop. I love Math (kahit mahirap). Just love the "solve for x" problems square root square root oye! I love drawing stuff too. But for some reason I find it hard to copy a drawing perfectly… Like if i draw a certain character I can’t draw it again… It’ll always look different.
    That’s all I can say for now… Have a nice night!